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Locally produced anti-venom vaccines by year-end

Locally produced anti-venom (vaccines) for snake bites for five varieties of snakes will be available by the end of this year, Acting Director General of Health Services Dr. J.M.W. Jayasundara Bandara said.

Addressing a press conference at the Health Education Bureau in Colombo he said that at the moment anti-venom vaccines for snake bites are imported to Sri Lanka from foreign countries such as India.

"Those vaccines are produced for venom found in snakes that are endemic to their countries. Therefore they are not ideal to treat patients bitten by snakes endemic to Sri Lanka," the doctor said.

According to Dr. Bandara, the locally produced anti venom vaccines will match venom found in local snakes one hundred percent.

Five vaccines will be produced locally for cobra, russells' viper, saw-scaled viper, hump nosed viper and common krait viper bites. The venom snakes endemic to Sri Lanka will be used to produce the vaccines.

"We will locally produce around 50 varieties of drugs required by next year in order to save money spend to import those costly drugs," he added.